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Come? to fee. Why did he fee? to overcome. To whom came be? to the beggar. What saw he? the beggar. Whom overcame be? the beggar. The conclufion is victory; on whofe fide? the King's; the captive is enrich'd: on whofe fide? the beggar's. The catastrophe is a nuptial: on whofe fide? the King's? no, on both in one, or one in both. I am the King (for fo ftands the comparison) thou the beggar, for fo witneffeth thy lowlinefs. Shall I command thy love? I may. Shall I enforce thy love? I could. Shall I entreat thy love? Į will. What shalt thou exchange for rags? robes; fir tittles? titles: for thyself? me. Thus expecting thy reply, I prophane my lips on thy foot, my eyes on thy picture, and my heart on thy every part.

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Thine in the dearest design of industry,

DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO,

Thus doft thou hear the Nemean lion roar 'Gainft thee, thou lamb, that ftandest as his prey Submiffive fall his princely feet before,

And he from forage will incline to play.

But if thou ftrive (poor foul) what art thou then?
Food for his rage, repafture for his den.

Prin. What plume of feathers is he, that indited this letter?

What vane? what weathercock? did you ever hear better?

Boyet. I am much deceived, but I remember the ftile.

Prin. Elfe your memory is bad, going o'er it ere

while 4.

3 Thou dost not hear, &c.] Thefe fix lines appear to be a quotation from fome ridiculous poem of that time.

WARBURTON,

-ere while.] Just now; a little while ago. So Raleigh, Here lies Hobbinol our shep berd, while e'er.

Boyet

Boyet. This Armado is a Spaniard that keeps here in Court,

A phantafme, a monarchos, and one that makes sport To the Prince, and his book-mates.

Prin. Thou, fellow, a word;

Who gave thee this letter?

Coft. I told you; my lord.

Prin. To whom shouldst thou give it?
Coft. From my lord to my lady.

Prin. From which lord to which lady?

Coft. From my lord Biron, a good mafter of mine, To a lady of France, that he call'd Rofaline.

Prin. Thou haft mistaken this letter. Come, lords, away".

Here, fweet, put up this; 'twill be thine another day. [Exit Princess attended. Boyet. Who is the fhooter? who is the fhooter ? Rof. Shall I teach you to know?

Boyet. Ay, my continent of beauty.

Rof. Why, the that bears the bow. Finely put off. Boyet. My lady goes to kill horns: but if thou

marry,

Hang me by the neck, if horns that

Finely put on..

Rof. Well then, I am the shooter.
Boyet. And who is your Deer?

year miscarry.

Rof. If we chufe by horns, yourself; come not near. Finely put on indeed.

Mar. You will wrangle with her, Boyet, and fhe ftrikes at the brow.

Boyet. But the herself is hit lower. Have I hit her now?

Rof. Shall I come upon thee with an old faying, that was a man when King Pippin of France was a little boy, as touching the hit it?

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a monarcho,] Sir T. Hammer reads, a mammuccio.

Come, lords, away.]

Perhaps the Princess said rather Come, ladies, away. The reft of the fcene deferves no care.

Boyet.

Boyet. So I may answer thee with one as old, that was a woman when Queen Quinover of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit it.

Rof. Thou can't not hit it, hit it, bit it. [Singing. Thou can't not kit it, my good man.

Boyet. An' I cannot, cannot, cannot;

An' I cannot, another can.

[Exit, Rof.

Coft. By my troth, moft pleasant; how both did

fit it.

Mar. A mark marvellous well fhot; for they both did hit it.

Boyet. A mark? O, mark but that mark! a mark, fays my lady;

Let the mark have a prick in't; to meet at, if it may be.

Mar. Wide o'th' bow-hand; i'faith, your hand is

out.

Coft. Indeed, a'muft fhoot nearer, or he'll ne'er hit the clout.

Boyet. An' if my hand be out, then, belike, your hand is in.

Coft. Then will fhe get the upfhot by cleaving the pin.

Mar. Come, come, you talk greafily; your lips grow foul.

Coft. She's too hard for you at pricks, Sir, challenge her to bowl.

Boyet. I fear too much rubbing; good night, my good owl. [Exeunt all but Costard. Coft. By my foul, a fwain; a most simple clown! Lord, Lord! how the ladies and I have put him down! O' my troth, most sweet jefts, moft incony vulgar wit, When it comes fo fmoothly off, fo obfcenely; as it were, fo fit.

Armado o' th' one fide-O, a moft dainty man;
To feek him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan.
To fee him kifs his hand, and how moft fweetly he
will fwear:

And

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And his Page o' t'other side, that handful of Wit; Ah, heaven's! it is a moft pathetical Nit.

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[Exit Coftard. [Shouting within.

7 Enter Dull, Holofernes, and Sir Nathanael. Nath. Very reverend sport, truly; and done in the teftimony of a good Confcience.

Hol. The deer was (as you know) fanguis, in blood;

ripe as a pomwater, who now hangeth like a jewel in

7 Enter-Holofernes,] There is very little perfonal reflexion in Shakespeare. Either the virtue of those times, or the candour of our author, has fo effected, that his fatire is, for the moft part, general, and as himfelffays, his taxing like a wild

goofe flies,

Unclaim'd of any man. The place before us feems to be an exception. For by Holofernes is defigned a particular character, a pedant and schoolmaster of our author's time, one John Florio, a teacher of the Italian tongue in London, who has given us a small dictionary of that language under the title of 4 world of words, which in his Epistle Dedicatory he tells us, is of little lefs value than Stephens's treaJure of the Greek tongue, the moft compleat work that was ever yet compiled of its kind. In his preface, he calls thofe who had criticized his works Sea dogs or Land critics; Monsters of men, if not beafts rather than men ; whofe teeth are canibals, their toongs addars-forks, their lips afpes poifon, their eyes bafilifkes, their breath

the

the breath of a grave, their words like words of Turks that ftrive which shall dive deepeft into a Chriftian lying bound before them. Well therefore might the mild Nathanael defire Holofernes to abrogate fcurrility. His profeffion too is the reafon that Holofernes deals fo much in Italian fentences. There is an edition of Love's Labour's loft, printed 1598, and faid to be prefented before ber Highness this laft Chriftmas 1597. The next year 1598, comes out our John Florio with his World of Words, recentibus odiis; and in the preface, quoted above, falls upon the comic poet for bringing him on the ftage. There is another fort of leering curs, that rather fnarle than bite, whereof I could inftance in one, who lighting on a good fonnet of a gentleman's, a friend of mine, that loved better to be a poet than to be counted jo, called the author a Rymer,

Let Ariftophanes and his come dians make plaies, and cowre their mouths on Socrates; thofe very mouths they make to vilifie jhall be the means to amplifie his virtue, &c. Here Shakespeare is fo plain

ly

the ear of Calo, the fky, the welkin, the heav'n; and anon falleth like a crab on the face of Terra, the foil, the land, the earth.

Nath. Truly, mafter Holofernes, the epithets are fweetly varied, like a fcholar at the leaft; but, Sir, I affure ye, it was a buck of the firft head.

Hol. Sir Nathanael, haud credo.

Dul. 'Twas not a baud credo, 'twas a pricket.

Hol. Moft barbarous intimation; yet a kind of infinuation, as it were in via, in way of explication;

ly marked out as not to be miftaken. As to the Sonnet of The Gentleman his friend, we may be affured it was no other than his own. And without doubt was parodied in the very fonnet beginning with The praifeful Princes, &c. in which our author makes Holofernes fay, He will Jomething affect the letter; for it argues facility. And how much John Florio thought this affectation argued facility, or quicknefs of wit, we fee in this preface where he falls upon his enemy, H. S. His name is H. S. Do not take it for the Roman H. S. unless it be as H. S. is twice as much and an half, as half an A8. With a great deal more to the fame purpofe; concluding his preface in these words, The refolute John Florio. From the ferocity of this man's temper it was, that Shakespeare chofe for him the name which Rabelais gives to his Pedant of Thubal Holoferne. WARBURTON.

I am not of the learned commentator's opinion, that the fatire of Shakespeare is fo feldom perfonal. It is of the nature of perfonal invectives to be soon unintelligible; and the author that

gratifies private malice, animam in vulnere ponit, deftroys the future efficacy of his own writings, and facrifices the esteem of fucceeding times to the laughter of a day. It is no wonder, therefore, that the farcafms which, perhaps, in the author's time, set the playhouse in a roar, are now loft among general reflections. Yet whether the character of Holofernes was pointed at any particular man, I am, notwithstanding the plaufibility of Dr. Warburton's conjecture, inclined to doubt. Every man adheres as long as he can to his own pre-conceptions. Before I read this note I confidered the character of Holofernes as borrowed from the Rhombus of Sir Philip Sidney, who, in a kind of pastoral entertainment exhibited to Queen Elizabeth, has introduced a schoolmafter fo called, speaking a leafk of languages at once, and puzzling himself and his auditors with a jargon like that of Holofernes in the prefent play. Sidney himself might bring the character from Italy; for, as Peacham obferves, the Schoolmafter has long been one of the ridiculous perfonages in the farces of that country.

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